


She's Always a Woman

by 2018014



Category: Soul Eater
Genre: Angst, Bathroom confessions, Billy Joel - Freeform, Comfort, Concerts, Confessions, Crying, Emotions, F/M, Feelings, First Kiss, Fluff, Kisses, Lots of Crying, Love, Love Confessions, Nervous, Piano, Song Lyrics, but it's good though, happy crying, kind of, supportive maka
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-18
Updated: 2019-09-18
Packaged: 2020-10-21 11:28:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,644
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20692760
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/2018014/pseuds/2018014
Summary: "I’m dedicating this song to a very special person, who knows me better than anyone ever has, or ever will.”Soul Eater Evans uses songwriting to confess his love.





	She's Always a Woman

It’s Soul's first concert gig at an unfortunately and surprisingly big restaurant downtown. He mindlessly tugs on his pressed jacket sleeve (Maka graciously ironed his coat before driving down here with him), feeling uncharacteristically nervous and queasy. All of his friends are here in the restaurant's makeshift audience, along with a hundred or so other patrons. The place smells like fresh bread and rich beer, which would usually be a pleasant scent, but with all the noise from the customers impatiently chatting before the show and the bright lights on the stage ready to point out his every mistake while blowing out his fucking corneas, he's suffering from some god-awful overstimulation. The nausea turns into a full-blown emergency, and Soul sprints towards the restaurant's back hallway, hoping to find a men's restroom. Finding it fairly quickly, he barrels his way inside, hoping briefly that none of the patrons saw him dash off stage. Luckily, at least all the stalls are empty as he makes his way to the sink to splash some cold water on his face and try to compose himself.

He definitely wasn’t expecting a crowd this big for his first fucking show. Just his luck, he’s old friends with the owner, who tried to do Soul a favor by giving passerby a discount on dinner to come listen to his show. Which kind of defeated the purpose of choosing the usually empty restaurant for a first gig. He didn’t even want to tell any of his friends, but Maka, as fucking nosy and supportive as she is, texted all of them anyways to be there with signs and flowers and other embarrassing shit. He saw them all in the audience earlier- Liz and Patty seated on either side of Kid, holding a perfectly symmetrical 'Go Soul!' sign, Black*Star already cheering and turning every head in the house, Tsubaki with a bouquet of ridiculous flowers, and Maka, who recently (and by recently he means well over the past year) he has not been able to keep off his fucking mind. Speaking of, he hears the men's restroom door creak open, before shutting and locking behind him. Usually, that would be a pretty big red flag, but he feels the familiar presence of Maka's genuine and worried soul. She must have followed him to help boost his morale. _My morale is perfectly fucking fine, thank you,_ Soul thinks sarcastically as he tries not to panic over the sink. He feels her small hand rest on his back, rubbing gently, the pressure still comfortingly warm even through her glove and his jacket.

“You can do this Soul.” She says to him. It makes his cheeks burn, because in the lowlight of this tiny, empty restroom, her voice in his ear sounds so fucking intimate. He turns around and starts at how close she is to him. Soul supposes there's even less room in this restroom than he previously thought, because his shoes are teasingly brushing her heels. Her head is tilted nearly all the way up just to keep making eye contact with him, and he finds himself cursing her green eyes for always seeing right through him.

“How do you know that?” He says back defensively, hating how insecure and weak it makes him look, and hating even more how weak and insecure he feels. But Maka, gorgeous and saint-like as always, smiles at him, and strokes some of his ridiculous white hair back into place. The simple motion sends shivers and sparks rushing down his spine.

“Because I know you, Soul.” She lets her hand drop and steps away, leaving him missing her touch immediately. _Get it together, man,_ He thinks. Turning to leave, she speaks to him once more. “I know you better than anyone ever has, or ever will.”

The door swings shut, and she's gone. It baffles him how fucking gentle she can be with him, while also a monster in battle. She seems reckless when she swings him around, but he knows the truth. She's careful with him, handles him like he's precious. Which simultaneously makes him embarrassed (what kind of meister has to protect their weapon?) and naïvely special. God, and she can read his fucking mind. He never has had to tell her anything, because she seems to already know, and better yet, knows exactly what to do about it. She probably knows that he would die for her. Hell, he's told her that himself only a million times. But to him, it means more than a weapon giving it's life for a meister. He's realized recently that that's been an excuse he's used to save face in front of annoyingly inquisitive "friends". Even though she could kill him with a look, destroy him with a word, and easily tear him apart, at the end of a day, he's a man giving his life for a woman.

It didn't use to be this complicated. He used to see her as annoying- the little girl with a stick up her ass who didn't know fun from a keishein's egg. Now he realizes, as she slowly traps him deeper and deeper under her spell that she's always been a woman. Too much woman for him to handle.

But he knows now more than ever that he can do this fucking concert, because he wants to do it for her. Maka is finally going to know his true feelings towards her, and he, for once in his life, prays that she can still love him the same once he’s done what he needs to do.

Soul, after making himself look as presentable as possible after almost having a panic attack in the bathroom, walks out on stage, and the audience claps for him, Black*Star definitely the loudest. He sees them all- Tsubaki, Patti, Liz, Kid, and Maka. God, he can’t look away from Maka. Before he can chicken out, as is usually the case when performances and confessions are involved, he sits at the piano, breathes in deep, and starts playing.

***************************************************************************

“Thank you guys so much for coming out tonight.” Soul says into the mic. The crowd cheers and Soul finds himself searching for those green eyes. “I have one more song for you guys and it’s a little different from my usual stuff, but that’s because I wrote this particular song for a very special person, who knows me better than anyone ever has, or ever will.” He locks eyes with her and smiles hesitantly. Her mouth is open in shock, and her cheeks are crimson, from anticipation or humiliation he can't tell. Feeling ominously like he’s begun to dig his own grave, he has no choice but to start playing.

Placing his hands on the keys, he shakily plays the first few chords. Trying to build up every last ounce of courage he has, he leans in towards the mic, giving one last breath of a prayer before starting to sing.

“She can kill with a smile, she can wound with her eyes, she can ruin your faith with her casual lies, and she only reveals what she wants you to see. She hides like a child, but she's always a woman to me.” The piano kicks up and he lets himself get taken away with it, all the stares of the audience and lights on the stage melting away. He thinks only of one person throughout it all.

“She can lead you to love, she can take you or leave you, she can ask for the truth but she'll never believe you, and she'll take what you give her as long as it's free. Yeah, she steals like a thief, but she's always a woman to me.” He sings, gaining more and more volume as he leads into the bridge.

“Oh, she takes care of herself, she can wait if she wants. She’s ahead of her time.”

“Oh, she never gives out and she never gives in. She just changes her mind.”

He hears her twinkling laugh in the audience, and knowing how her pigtails shake and eyes crinkle when she laughs, he keeps playing.

“And she'll promise you more than the garden of Eden, then she'll carelessly cut you and cry while you're bleeding, but she brings out the best and the worst you can be. Blame it all on yourself 'cause she's always a woman to me.”

He comes across a memory while he’s humming, one that inspired the line. They were battling Crona, which was her fight to start. She looked at Soul and promised him they could win, and he, blinded by love, believed her. But she was unusually careless and tried to protect him from harm, so to keep her from getting killed by her own stupidity, he was cut, and badly. The last thing he remembers is her sobbing over his body and calling his name over and over again as he lost consciousness. But he remembers how afterwards, she felt incredible guilt over his injury, how vastly different she became, and how he couldn’t stand to see her in as much pain as she was. So he took responsibility, all of it, just to see her smile at him again. His eyes water and the piano blurs as he transitions into the final bridge.

“Oh, she takes care of herself, she can wait if she wants. She’s ahead of her time.” The tone changes as he softly sings to Maka. Silence falls over the audience while he sings, as if they can feel Soul's emotions. As if they can see his soul as clearly as he feels it inside of himself, reaching for the achingly enticing soul in the room.

“Oh, she never gives out and she never gives in. She just changes her mind.” This time there is no laugh from a certain person watching. All he hears is a familiar soft sniffle.

“She is frequently kind and she's suddenly cruel, she can do as she pleases, she's nobody's fool, but she can't be convicted, she's earned her degree, and the most she will do is throw shadows at you, but she's always a woman to me.” His soul physically hurts from how raw and vulnerable he’s shown himself to be. Every single one of his thoughts and feelings has just been laid out in front of Maka’s feet. How much he loves her, not in spite of, but because of her flaws. He loves all of her. So much. Now everyone knows.

Soul hums out the last few notes of his song, trying to sustain the magic that much longer, before playing the ending chord, letting the tune ring out one final time before falling silent. Panting slightly, he looks out towards the audience. The silence vanishes as the crowd cheers for him, louder than he's ever heard. The noise in the room throws off his soul resonance and he loses Maka in the crowd. While they applaud and cheer, he frantically searches for green eyes, anywhere those fucking gorgeous green eyes. But they're nowhere to be found. Suddenly, he catches Kid in the audience. He must have seen the frantic desperation in Soul's eyes because he quickly motions to the hallway that leads to the restrooms. Adrenaline fueling, Soul nods and runs off the stage, only Maka Albarn in his thoughts. He’d do anything to keep her, even though he just provided ammunition for the one thing that could tear them apart. Sprinting the familiar path to the bathrooms, he opens to door to the women’s restroom and locks it behind him. He turns to see Maka slumped over on the floor in the corner, looking as if she'd collapsed, and sobbing openly into her hands. Soul’s heart, as heavy with love as it is, drops to his stomach, and his chest is overcome with the pressure of a cracking heart. A tear leaks from his eyes and rolls down his cheek as he kneels in front of Maka, prepared to give her everything he has, anything she needs, as long as she'll look at him with those eyes and ask.

“Maka, I’m so sorry." He starts, choking up. Maka Albarn is the first and only woman to make Soul Eater Evans cry, and that is a truth he takes pride in. Not for the manliness of his lack of emotions, but for the dedication and admiration - the love- he holds for her. He'd cry for her forever if she told him to. "That was so stupid of me. I don’t know why I thought that was a good idea. I must have taken one too many Maka-chops to the head." He chuckles wetly. “I know this is sudden and embarrassing, and totally completely lame, but I want- I _need_ you to know that I'm utterly, obsessively, just head over fucking heels-" He cuts off when he feels her hand on his. She looks up, into his eyes. Her eyes are watery, making green look emerald, and they're ringed with smudged black makeup, while her swollen nose is runny, leaking onto the delicate material of her dress. Pieces of her hair are falling out of her pigtails and spilling down her back. She is the most beautiful thing he’s ever seen.

Wiping her eyes and trying to sit up, she needlessly attempts to compose herself. If she truly knew what Soul saw when he looked at her, she'd never worry about appearances again. He helps her up all the way, then compassionately brushes his thumbs under her eyes to wipe the leftover tears away. She gives a wet laugh when he gently takes out her pigtails and smooths down her hair. Looking at him, her eyes begin to tear up again.

“No one-" She starts, clearing her throat to try and steady her voice a little more before continuing. He waits for her patiently, ready for whatever answer she has to give him.

"No one... has _ever_ loved me as much as you do.” She admits to him, her voice cracking on the last word. He sees her eyes shine through the tears as she looks at him, sees her lips curve in a bittersweet and overwhelmed smile. He looks at her in shock. _Everyone who has ever met you loves you, Maka._ He thinks, baffled, _But you love me back, just as much._

He turns his hand over so he’s holding hers, removes her glove, and brings her palm up to his lips, kissing it gently. He looks up towards her once again to see more tears spilling over her cheeks. She looks at him like he just gave her the moon.

“And no one ever will.” He agrees, silently promising her more than he could ever say in words. She breaks down crying again after hearing his confession, and Soul pulls her into his chest, pressing a kiss onto the top of her head as he holds her.

He understands now how Maka feels. She's spent so long keeping people at arms length to prevent herself from getting hurt, that she thought she'd never be loved by anyone. Which Soul thinks is absolutely fucking insane. Even against her best efforts to push him away, he quickly realized a long time ago that she is the only one he could ever love. There will never be anyone else as made for him as her. Nor anyone as perfect for her as him.

After a couple minutes, when Maka calms down enough for her to tilt Soul's head down and finally press her lips onto his, he knows, sitting with her in his arms on the floor of a women’s restroom, while all their friends wait outside the door to congratulate them, that writing that stupid song was the best decision of his life, and he’ll never be happier than he is right now.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much for reading!
> 
> I love Billy Joel and 80s love songs so if you want more songs like this, I have a playlist on Spotify called "80s songs that make me woohoo" with more songs like She's Always a Woman on there!
> 
> Please let me know what you think! I'm not a writer, but I love Soul and Maka so here we are. Hope you enjoyed!


End file.
